Please read Disclaimer in Idiot Beloved, Ch. 1.
Title: Idiot Beloved Ch. 21: Serpent Power
Author: JaganshiKenshin
Genre: Action/Adventure, Humor
Rating: T
Summary: The hour is late, and enemies are everywhere.
A/N: The corollary to Chapter 20, and another fairly long one.
I appreciate everyone who's reading and commenting. Arigatou,
minna-san!
Idiot Beloved Ch 21: Serpent Power
by
Kenshin
At the firebird's breathless warning, Hiei whirled. Ahhh,
crap---not again! One glance at the enemy, and he snapped up his
katana and raised a shield.
At least it wasn't the white snake-thing! It was---
"Stay close," he told her, "and stay low."
She obeyed.
It was an oni, a big one, wearing nothing but its own pitted gray
hide. Damn. He could easily handle the oni, but with her here,
needing his protection---
The oni lumbered over and bammed on the shield. It could bam all
day; it would take something like an attack of the late Seiryuu's
caliber to dent it.
If.
If Hiei was at full strength, and not already depleted from a
day's training and a Game against Kurama.
"Hey, Tiny!" grunted the oni. "Gimme the girl, an' I'll think
about letting you live."
"How about you move back and let us get out of here?" the
firebird snapped. "We're late for a meeting with the Prime
Minister."
The oni took a moment to scratch its head.
"I would love to stand here and cut you to pieces," added Hiei,
"but it's been a long day."
"Gimme the girl," the oni repeated. You had to admire its
persistence.
From the tail of Hiei's eye he spotted another oni emerging from
a nearby stand of trees, this one smaller and orange in color.
He shifted position slightly, trying to keep both oni in sight.
The shield might hold.
Two oni. He addressed Shay-san: "If one of the oni moves in back
of me can you keep an eye on it?"
"Yes," she replied. "Ah, nuts, there's a third one. At nine
o'clock."
Hiei cranked his head around to the side. Coming low from the
underbrush was a smaller oni, a violet-colored creature sporting
three horns.
Three oni. If she got on his back, the way she had at the White
Serpent Shrine, he could drop the shield and make the vertical
jump into the trees, and leave the demons behind. "Onna," he
began. "Listen carefully."
"Another attack!" she cried. "Behind you!"
He spun to face the new enemy. Make that enemies, plural. The
situation suddenly got leagues worse.
Baring their fangs in glee, looking like dinosaurs in miniature,
fast and lethal---these were the three raptor demons whose lives
Hiei had so foolishly spared back in the forest surrounding
Genkai's temple.
Red, gold and green, they sprang into action, hissing like steam
engines, surrounding Hiei and the girl.
"Looks like we caught up with you again, short stuff," gloated
the blue raptor. The others bobbed their alligator heads, saliva
dripping from their razor-sharp fangs.
"I don't know who you are," said Shay-san, " but in another
minute you'll be laughing out of the other side of your maws."
"Joke's on you, runt," said Gold. "Hand over the girl."
Red Raptor darted forward to land a heavy blow on the shield.
Then the biggest oni lumbered up, bamming and fell back to let
the orange one take its place, and then the violet oni joined
them.
Three oni, three raptors, one Hiei.
It was grim enough. Hiei was fast, and powerful, but with mind
and body drained by both the long training session and the
harrowing Game against Kurama, he already could sense the shield
weakening.
And the other demons knew it.
He cursed himself for allowing those raptors to live, but that
would not help the situation now.
He still had one chance. One shot for the strong vertical leap,
then flight through the trees.
But the raptors could follow almost as fast as he could flee.
And the three of them stood in a row, balanced for flight,
leering at him, as if reading his thoughts.
"Woman," he said. "Listen and obey."
"Yes." Her voice came to him high and tight with fear.
"No matter what happens, hold onto me as if your life depended on
it."
"Y-yes. No, wait!" He heard her cry, felt the heavy blow to the
weakening shield from the two smaller oni at the same time and
saw, with sinking heart, that the biggest oni had its clawed arms
out, towering over them both, blocking his vertical escape.
Cut off from the front, from the rear, and now---
Hiei locked eyes with the gold raptor and bared his own fangs in
challenge.
If this was to be, then so be it! They would have to literally
tear him to pieces to get to her, and even in his depleted state,
he would never allow that to---
"They're ganging up," she cried. "That tall one---you can't
jump---- he's blocking---"
And suddenly the big oni was on the ground, in pieces, and Hiei
heard Kurama's cool, insolent voice:
"Not any more."
Without bothering to look at Kurama, Hiei dropped the shield.
Charging the orange oni, he took it out before the blow even
registered on its nerve endings, got the violet oni with his
return stroke; Kurama's Rose Whip dismembered the blue and green
raptors, and Hiei flicked to dismember the gold one, and in the
same movement, put himself between his firebird and Kurama.
Kurama stood regarding him, Rose Whip in hand, faintly mocking
smile on his lips. "Any more where that came from?"
The girl seemed to be recovering from the terror of the attack.
"I don't hear anything."
"Human ears wouldn't," said Kurama.
"I don't hear anything either," snapped Hiei.
"We could always just stand here and make targets of ourselves,"
suggested Kurama.
"There's been enough target practice for one night," said Hiei.
Shay-san put a hand on Hiei's shoulder. "Are you going to leave
the bodies lying here?"
"What would you suggest?" Hiei turned, lifted an eyebrow.
"Proper burial with Extreme Unction? I left the Holy Water at
home."
"Well," she said, the cool insolence of her voice matching
Kurama's and more, "I was going to suggest you burn them, but if
you want to go ahead and get some Holy Water and a shovel, the
Immaculate Heart church is closer than Genkai's place."
"Baka onna." There was no way he could drag the oni pieces
together and protect her from Kurama at the same time. He
considered the dilemma.
"Kurama." Hiei grated out the name. "Can you help with the
oni?"
Kurama gave him a brilliant smile and folded his arms. "If you
want them burnt, burn them youself."
"Ch." If he kept Shay-san at his side---but no. And if she
moved far enough from Kurama to sit on a park bench it was
conceivable some other demon could drop on her from of the trees.
Shay-san strolled to one of the larger pieces of oni, knelt, and
tugged at it.
"Woman, stop that!" Hiei leapt forward. "What in Hell do you
think you're doing?"
Her glance was innocence on parade. "Collecting them myself."
"No way am I letting you drag something that big in your---"
"Stand back," said Kurama. "Please." Once they were well clear
of the area, Kurama employed the Whip with great delicacy and
precision. Before long oni and raptor parts were piled in a neat
little stack.
"There," said the kitsune. "Nice and ready for barbecue." Then
he turned to Shay-san. "I suggest we get downwind. The smell
will be brief, but unpleasant, and you don't want it in your
hair."
"Or your clothes," she agreed.
"Then why don't I go hail a cab." Kurama sauntered off into the
night.
In that instant the meaning of the word 'surreal' burst upon Hiei
with perfect clarity.
0-0-0-0-0
When Hiei had finished, Kurama was leaning against an idling cab
at the edge of the park, arms folded, waiting as if nothing out
of the ordinary had occurred.
Hiei opened the door and handed Shay-san into the cab first, then
slid in beside her. Kurama went around to the other side.
"Oh, no." Leaning over, Hiei shot out a hand like a traffic cop.
"I'm not letting you sit next to her."
"Standard procedure, I'm afraid." Kurama shrugged. "You know
the drill."
Kurama was right; if demons were after the girl, then one could
easily yank open the door on her side and pull her out before
they could react.
"All right," Hiei said grudgingly. But he snaked a protective
arm around her shoulders, putting at least some form of barrier
between her and Kurama.
The driver waited for instructions.
"Please," Kurama said, in English. "Take us to Genkai's temple."
The driver blinked in confusion. "Sumimasen?"
"Or don't you know the place?" the fox-boy continued, in
pleasant tones. "It is located quite a way out of town, I'm
afraid."
"Saa.." The driver scratched his head. "Nani?"
Kurama, still in English, called him a fat-faced traitor.
The driver grinned and bobbed his head. "Chotto...?"
Then Kurama called him a butter-stinker. The driver shrugged
apologetically.
Hiei interrupted, giving the driver directions to the temple in
Japanese. Then he turned to Kurama. "Was that what I think it
was?"
"Yes." Kurama nodded. "We can speak freely in front of the
driver if we use English." He fixed his gaze upon Hiei. "These
attacks---could they have to do with the temple bells you didn't
steal?"
"In what way?"
"As in, someone thinks you've got them and is trying to obtain
them from you."
Shay-san took a breath. "No attacker's ever mentioned bells."
"True." Hiei pulled her close. "They only wanted to get their
hands on my idiot woman."
"Why did Koenma-sama want you to steal them anyway?" Kurama
asked.
"Never said. Just 'steal the bells,' ran off on vacation."
"Never said what was valuable about them?"
Hiei shook his head.
"Now," said Kurama. "You just had an excellent illustration of
why she's the weak link. She's no fighter, no good with a sword,
and she---"
"I'm sorry," whispered the girl. "I'm sorry."
"Kurama," Hiei said, sick of games.
Kurama stopped.
"She is sitting right here." Hiei tightened his grip on the girl
further still. "If you don't address her directly, I will blow
you out of cab, driver or no driver."
It took some heartbeats for Kurama to speak again. He lowered
his head, perhaps an inch, laughing softly. "I'm the one who
ought to apologize," he murmured, then turned to the girl. "Tell
me, Shay-san, why you did not attempt to Spellbind any of the
demons?"
Hiei could feel her skin heat up. "I'm afraid I'm not at that
stage just yet," she replied stiffly.
"That's all right." Kurama sounded almost soothing now. "Shay-
san. Do you know how to use a gun?"
"I can shoot. Back ho---" She checked herself. "Back in Arizona
I had a carry permit, but it won't apply here."
"Naturally. Is your aim good?"
"I said I can shoot."
"This will be a moving target."
"At the ranch we shot skeet. I know moving targets."
"Then that's what you'll have to do," said Kurama. "With an oni,
aim for the eyes."
Shay-san gave an impatient little wriggle against Hiei's side; he
was probably hurting her. He loosened his grip. "You forget one
thing," he reminded them. "No gun."
"Atsuko-san can get her one," Kurama assured them.
"From her Yakuza connections?" Hiei was indignant. "No way."
"I'll need something small and light, like a Beretta Cheetah."
Shay-san was warming to the subject. "Good gun for a lady. Ten-
round mag, eleven if you keep one in the chamber, and it still
has some stopping power up close."
"Always talking in code," sighed Hiei.
"And I'll need a pancake holster---if Hiei can wear a coat to
disguise his katana, I can wear a jacket to hide the gun. And
practice time, of course."
Kurama nodded. "I imagine the three of us can come up with
something."
Hiei snorted softly. "So you look now to protect her? Why?"
Kurama turned his head away, but Hiei saw him, reflected in the
window of the cab, the corners of his mouth turned down, his eyes
veiled. "If anything happened to her," Kurama whispered, "Kaasan
would be sad."
"You know," said Shay, drawing out the last word. "Hiei's
interrogation technique can still use a little refinement."
"Kill first, ask questions later." Kurama smiled. "That's our
Hiei."
"You did the same thing," she reminded the fox-boy.
They spent the rest of the ride in silence.
0-0-0-0-0
The silence had begun to strain at the edges by the time the cab
pulled up and stopped in the road leading to Genkai's temple.
They all three got out, the cab idling for Kurama to get back in
for the return trip to town.
The night was warming up from its earlier chill, and the soft
hoot of an owl carried on moist soft air from the distant trees.
Hiei felt almost light-headed from exhaustion, but the sight of
the temple, sitting above the road, cheered him.
Kurama did not get back in the cab right away. He followed them
up the road a bit, then stopped.
Reaching into his hair, he extracted another small round seed,
coaxing it to grow, and when he opened his hand, there lay a
second Blossom of Truth.
He offered it to Shay-san. "Here. The vase and water were just
for show. It will last about two hours, with or without."
"Thank you, Kurama." Then, coming close to him, she balanced on
the very tips of her toes, placing both hands on his shoulders.
"And this is for Shuu-ko."
She kissed him lightly on the cheek.
Hiei caught his breath, ready for anything.
But Kurama's eyes flew wide. He put a hand to the spot she had
kissed.
"Good night," she said, then turned and strolled toward the
temple. Feeling as if nothing further could surprise him
tonight, Hiei followed. He heard Kurama get into the cab and
pull away.
0-0-0-0-0
Back in their room, Shay-san placed the Blossom of Truth on the
table and fell face-up across the bed. "Do I smell like oni?"
Hiei studied her from a distance. "No."
"That's good. I don't think I have the strength to wash my
hair."
"Maybe I do give in. Maybe I let Urameshi's mother get you that
Yakuza gun. You can use it on Kurama."
"I won't need to."
"You say this now. His mood can change instantly."
"Minamino Shuuichi likes me. I like him. Kurama likes me, but
not what I've become. Only Youko would see me dead and
dismembered."
"How can you know that? You've never met Youko."
She rolled her eyes at him.
"Okay, okay."
"He's ashamed now because it was weakness to attack me. I'm
nothing but an ordinary ningen female."
Hiei had to laugh at that one. "Liar."
"It was beneath him and he knows it. But after what I said to
him he couldn't stop himself."
"He did---in the end."
In a flash, she was off the bed, Blossom of Truth in hand, face
to face with him. "And now," she said, "Courtesy of Kurama...
tell me what you want right this moment."
"Baka," he purred, pulling her close. "I give you three guesses.
One for each eye."
0-0-0-0-0
Red light, black room, White Serpent.
This trinity of color, representing descendence, reality, and
ascendence.
The hour was late and the house hollowed out with silence. His
toad-servants had all departed for the night; only the human
remained with him, the human silhouetted against the long bank of
red-tinted windows, the Serpent deep in his black leather chair.
Of the miko huddling at the feet of the master, no one took any
notice.
"All of them?" The Serpent ran a white tongue over white lips.
"All, dispatched?"
"Every one." John flipped the 'clipboard' around, showing its
face to the Serpent.
He gave an impatient wave. "Even the raptors? They should have
been fast enough to---"
"Even the raptors." John's face was carefully, deliberately
blank. "It seems the little demon had some outside help from a
source you had counted on."
For a long time, the Serpent did not move. "Very well."
Drawing a deep breath, he rose. "I shall have to make an attempt
myself."
0-0-0-0-0
Judging by the scents and the sounds, it was somewhen between
midnight and dawn. Cold in the room, and getting colder.
Hiei had lain in a half-waking state for some time now, feeling
his firebird toss and turn. She was a good sleeper and this was
unusual.
He glanced at the floor. There was the Blossom of Truth,
shriveled and black, lying where she had dropped it.
She rolled to her back. At the juncture of her neck and shoulder
he saw a tiny nick where he had gotten a little too enthusiastic
with his fangs. He soothed it with his tongue. She rolled away
from him. He stuck an elbow into her. "Can't sleep? Want your
gun now? So eager to shoot me?"
She rolled to her other side and he caught the scent of her
sweat. Never unpleasant to him, sharp with the tang of her own
salts and pheromones, but---
New. Different. Something subtle about her sweat.
She was sweating heavily. The room was cold, she wore not a
stitch, and yet she was sweating heavily.
"Hey." Another dig with his elbow. She didn't respond. He
pulled her around to face him.
Her eyes were open and unseeing. Her teeth gleamed in the dim
light and she took one breath for his two.
He thought of the time she'd been poisoned.
For a moment, he considered the Blossom of Truth. He had not
touched it. But she had.
However, using it to poison her---not even Youko would stoop to
that.
The cold bit at him now. The temperature was dropping fast.
"Onna!" He shook her for real. A thread of sound wisped from
her mouth. Her gaze rolled right and left and did not rest on
him.
Hiei drew a shuddering breath, and, at the very edge of his
perceptions, sensed a faint tendril of some power that was in the
room with them.
A shock of fear seized him. Pulling on some clothes, he bolted
from the room.
0-0-0-0-0
Genkai-shihan stood next to the bed examining the unconscious
girl, grumbling to herself. Hiei's firebird was still in that
strange, half-waking state, her breath threading toward the
ceiling. He had wrapped her in his mantle; now, bare-chested,
his breath crystallizing in the air, even the half-Kourime felt
the cold.
"And you say they were just oni?" Genkai lifted her eyes to his.
"Low-level oni?"
"Yes." Hiei nodded. "Along with three raptors. We took care of
them."
"We?"
"K-kurama was---" When he spoke again, he had regained control
of his voice. "Kurama showed up. Is she---"
"Relax." Genkai softened her voice. "There's no poison at work
here."
"Then what's doing this to her?"
"Sit her up and give me her hand."
He complied.
"You can't see them?" Genkai said.
"Please, no games, Baasan. I have had enough of games."
"Even with the Jagan bound, you should be able to see these power
tendrils. Living with her has made you stupid." Genkai pointed
upward.
Hiei tracked the direction, past the sweating girl, up near the
ceiling where all the warm air in the room had been pushed by the
cold. And saw at last what he had only felt before. "But these
weren't here," he protested. "I could sense a faint backwash of
power, nothing visible. Now, though..."
He trailed off, staring. Filaments of ultraviolet light, flowing
from the ceiling, thinning to near-invisibility where they
attached to his firebird's brow.
Growing! Shooting through the room to---or
from---who-knew-where. His hands twitched, itching to slash and
sever the connection; he thought of the katana leaning against
the bed, reached out for it.
"Don't you go breaking that connection," warned Genkai. "Not
until we can trace it."
Hiei forced his hands to relax. His firebird had pointed out
something earlier and she was right. None of their encounters
had yet yielded a live suspect for questioning. If they could
find one now at the other end of the tendril it could prove
invaluable.
He knew this. It was fact. Still he wanted to leap forward and
sever the power tendrils.
"Girl!" commanded Genkai. "What do you see?"
And to Hiei's astonishment she answered. Her voice was slurred,
just as when she'd been poisoned, but she was able to form words.
"White eyes. White hair. House leaning over a cliff." She
hitched a breath. "Burning white fire. His hands are white.
His thoughts. Old thoughts. Old power. White for poison.
White for mourning. White for laughter."
A few crystals of snow formed in the moist air of the ceiling,
then drifted to the floor. Hiei's scalp bristled. He understood
this now, knew what it was now: the power that had found him in
America, the power that had attacked them both at the Arizona
shrine. "Break it! Break it at once!" He lunged forward,
clawing.
"Don't!" Genkai gave him a little shove backward.
"She's in danger," he hissed.
And the bands of ultraviolet writhed like vines under a ravening
fire. Hiei shied away from them, torn between the need to snatch
the girl to safety and his own fear of what lay at the other end.
The girl's brows drew down, as if in pain. She gave a little
grunt, breath steaming in the frigid air. Sweat soaked her skin.
Trembling, she arched her back, half-rising from the bed, baring
her teeth, eyes tight shut now, clearly in a struggle.
"Baasan..." Hiei began. Genkai held out a hand to silence him.
"Hear that?" Genkai said.
"Hear what?"
The power tendrils vibrated, giving the faint ring of crystal.
And exploded, showering them with fine, powdery snow that burned
where it touched bare skin.
"Moron," said Genkai, brushing the burning snow from the
bedclothes. "Now we can't trace it."
"B-but---" Barely able to breathe, Hiei shook his head. "I
didn't break the tendrils."
"Then who---" Genkai raised an eyebrow. "She did? She broke
them?" Her words emerged as fading smoke; even as she said them
the room was warming up. "Well. She's stronger than whatever it
was, anyway." Grunting, Genkai blew into her own hands to warm
them; Hiei grabbed both of the tough little fists and gave her
some of his heat.
The firebird's eyes opened, focused on him, clear as gumdrops.
"I broke what?" she murmured.
"You're awake!" It was all he could do not to fling himself at
her. He covered his weakness by warming her hands in turn.
"You broke the tendrils." Genkai nodded. "You were connected by
them to a mind, seeing something it either wanted you to see, or
didn't."
"Damn." Shay-san sat up, pulling the mantle around her, mopping
sweat from her brow. "Double damn."
"Was it like your dream?" Hiei prodded.
Genkai looked from one to the other. "This happened before? And
you boneheads didn't see fit to tell me?"
"Not like this." Shay-san shook her head. "It wasn't like this
before. It was just an impression. I thought at the time it was
a bad dream and nothing else."
"So did I," said Hiei.
Settling back into the pillows, the girl mused, "I wonder if I
could get whatever that was to come back."
"No," snapped Hiei. "I forbid it."
She shrugged, but seemed not to be listening. She should listen,
Hiei thought. He had battled that white thing in America and
barely managed to get them both away from it. Then had made the
stupid assumption that it had not followed them back to Japan.
He remembered the White Serpent Shrine, bared his teeth. "Stupid
is right, Genkai. The power I felt back then at the Shrine. The
white snake that attacked us there. The power that came here
tonight. I think they are one and the same."
"I see." Genkai folded her arms, glaring up at him. "And the
fact that it attacked here---I don't find that at all comforting.
Do you?"
Hiei looked at the floor.
"Enough. Now you," she said, to Hiei, "get up and act like a
husband."
"Baasan!" he protested, embarrassed.
"Dolt." Genkai shot him an acid look, then walked away, shaking
her head. "Brew her some tea. What did you think I meant?"
0-0-0-0-0
"You're not as strong as you thought," said John, his head
tilting down to address his lord. There was a rising tone in his
voice that rang throughout the room of red and white and black.
"Not only did the other miko not come running, but she slammed
the door in your face."
"Shut up," hissed the Serpent.
In the black room illuminated by crimson light from the demon
plane, breathing hard, White Sands Serpent clung to the arms of
the black leather chair as if to let go was to drown.
At his feet, the miko drew herself into a shivering ball.
"Perhaps you've overextended yourself," John continued. "Perhaps
you've been weakened. And now weak enough to be defeated by a
sleeping girl."
"I'll show you weak!" White Sands Serpent shot out a hand,
grabbed the huddled miko by the throat, yanked her into his lap.
A little cat-mew was her only defense.
"Leave her alone!" John lunged forward, knocking the Serpent's
hand away from the girl. She tumbled onto the floor and lay in a
still small heap.
Without a sound, without shifting position, White Sands Serpent
unbraided his hair and sent a single snake shooting out. It
wrapped itself around John, coil upon coil, until there was
nothing of the human to be seen.
But his agonized cry rattled the windows.
0-0-0-0-0
In Genkai's kitchen, Hiei grabbed two mugs, heated some water,
then waited impatiently for the beverage to brew.
He had never before thought that anything could move too fast for
him, but he had the impression that he was standing still, and
the events of the world were spinning under his feet at a speed
he could not even detect.
The cold white power he had felt at the Shrine, and tonight. It
flat-out scared him.
What happened, he wondered, to 'I fight, therefore I am?'
He was returning with the mugs on a tray when Genkai appeared in
the hall. She drew on her cigarette, sparking the end to life.
"As if Yuusuke wasn't bad enough," she said. "Just what I've
always wanted: another couple of idiot kids running around the
place, getting into mischief."
Hiei sighed. "We could move out any time you---"
"She could become very, very powerful." The old reiki master's
eyes narrowed behind a long plume of smoke. "Your 'firebird.'
Strong almost beyond belief. But she won't."
Hiei considered what Shay-san had said in the cab: She couldn't
use her powers yet. "How strong?"
"How strong? I'm old, Shorty. Over the decades I've seen
countless Spellcasters. I've trained some, even battled a few.
This one did what she did that morning after one half-assed
lesson. One. If she took the training, she could, with a single
word, stop a man's heart." She paused for another drag. "Let
that sink in for a bit, kid."
The tray felt suddenly heavy. "But you said she won't. Because
she's too soft?"
Genkai laughed. "No, that one wants to become stronger. And has
far less compunctions against killing than you, if it comes to
that."
She was going to make him ask. "Why not, then?"
"Moron. She believes you'll always jump between her and the
speeding train."
Hiei gulped down his stock answer. Could he do it? Could he
protect her against something that shook him to the bone?
Genkai snorted. "Too much fire, both of you. Fire and air.
Nothing good can come of it. You'll burn each other out."
Hiei rolled his eyes. "Everyone says that."
Abruptly, Genkai changed the subject. "There are things I have
to find out. I'm leaving for a day or two. Don't wreck the
place while I'm gone."
He waited for Genkai to elaborate.
But all she said was, "Tea's getting cold."
"It's coffee." Hiei shot the old woman a tired grin. "My
Firebird hates tea."
-30-
(To be continued---the coming storm!)